All American Banana Split

Telling Tales: On the first day I came to America, I met Fred. He invited me to have lunch in a small restaurant in the Village (in NYC). I wanted to have a banana split as I had seen one on the movies.

When it came, I thought the waiter was just showing it to me and would take it in the back and serve a small portion. I gasped when I realized the whole thing was for me. I declared I could never eat such a huge thing.

And then I did.

I didn’t share but maybe I should have.

Food Job: Childhood Obesity Researcher

First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let’s Move! Initiative before a gathering of 800 invited chefs in the Rose Garden of the White House. She said, “This is an initiative to reverse the devastating long-term consequences of childhood obesity and to improve the quality of the food served in public schools.”

She encouraged all invited guests to join in the challenge by saying, “You are all at the heart of this initiative . . . You know more about food than almost anyone—other than grandmas—and you’ve got the visibility and the enthusiasm to match that knowledge.”

I’m shocked to discover how many otherwise sensible people yearn to become food writers. It isn’t an easy life.

First you’ve got to study geography.

Geography is destiny. We associate certain places with specific foods.  Tuscany is still right up there when it come to desirable place names. We much prefer Swiss to any old cheese fondue. Cassoulet from Toulouse is infinitely superior to pork ‘n’ beans.

Provence, as in Warm Provencal Tart with Seared Tuna and Fragrant Herbs, beats a tuna fish sandwich every time.

Napa, Maine and Vermont are magical words. So is Texas, but only when we’re talking about barbecue. New Jersey, though it claims to be The Garden State, lacks the charm of Buffalo, New York. For we salivate over the promise of Buffalo wings and even mozzarella from a buffalo?

Chefs like to suggest that their served trout has been swimming in a lake, though we all know full well, it mostly comes from fish farms in Idaho. Bays are dreamy places particularly at sunset. Booth Bay and Chesapeake sound like appealing places to go for oysters.

PEI Oysters Courtesy of ArugulaFiles.com

Prince Edward Island is a real island. Staten Island lacks its charisma.

The Mediterranean diet retains its promise of life everlasting. A recent report reveals some fish stocks are regaining strength in the Atlantic, but salmon mostly don’t swim there any more.

Food writers have to divine all these subtleties of language. Only then can they choose one of these specialties:

Much like a food photographer, a food videographer provides a vital visual element: to cooking instructions, in animating the interior of a restaurant, memorializing a food festival. He or she can record conferences, add to cooking demonstration websites, sales pitches, and proposals. The food videographer has become a valued member of a culinary team.

If you can secure some funding, you can travel the universe as a food videographer. Pick your topic. It can be anything from a documentary about fair trade coffee to creating a permanent recording of a family gathering or filming correct and incorrect table manners, the correct and incorrect way to greet a guest and the importance of a gracious ’Goodbye, please come back soon.’

Indeed, any and every aspect of teaching and learning about food preparation and service is enriched when a speaker can be seen, not simply heard.

Online courses and cooking demonstrations are more interesting when accompanied with a lively video. A profitable business is awaiting a professional who creates a two or three minute “live” video of a conference, a lecture, an interview, or a living “portrait” to be used to introduce writers of food blogs or as a selling tool for a food truck owner or to introduce a new line of barbecue sauces.

Even culinary job applications can get added depth and interest if they offer a visual or video aspect to their portfolio.

To get started as a food videographer, look for a food videographer internship and start to create some sample material and  a proposal with details of your fees. If there isn’t such an internship in your community, create your own with a local school and by suggesting your services to various local culinary businesses.

As I always say, if you don’t ask, the chances of getting what you want are zero.